I got the email I’ve been waiting for recently, I’ve been picked for the National team to represent the country in Hungary, at the European Kendo championships, in April this year. 6 weeks to go……
Now normally, you’d get me jumping up and down, giving it the spiel and laying out what my focus is going to be between now and then. I’ll do that, but I’ve got to say something first.
This is the first time in 6 years that I have been asked to pay to represent great Britain. It’s not the first time, so you’re not going to get indignation and outrage from me (just in case your were hoping for a curse-ridden rant!), but I had really thought that we’d moved on from asking people who are going to, essentially, be the international face of the association, to pay for the responsibility as well.
I will always be happy and honoured to bear the flag on my zekken. I always have been, and it’s been a part of me and my kendo for all but a single year (the first!) of my kendo life. That’s a total of 9 years, and being a member of this team is one of THE most important things in my life to me. And I will go to Hungary and give my very being for the team, to take us as far as we can. I truly believe that we are capable of winning this competition this year, and I will be dissapointed not to be in the final, of both the teams and indies. But asking the guys to pay is, just, a sad return, I guess.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the support that the squad, and myself personally, have recieved from the BKA, but this regression back to the old days, of essentially having the team that can afford to go, and not the team that can win the thing, is a potential step back to the days when team members who were stronger got left behind in favour of team members who are richer, and such potentially good results were left floundering in a sea of bank balances and pay slips.
Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a rant, in any way really. At the end of the day, of course, I’ll go, I WANT to go, and I’ll pay my bit, and I’ll give absolutely everything that I have and I am possibly capable of giving, as I always have done, because it really is this important to me, and I really hate to lose. But a little part of me will be sad inside that, despite the significant improvements in the last 3 years (the team got medals for the first time in something like 10+ years in Portugal, then repeated that in Finland, cementing our rise and place among the top teams) the value of the national team to the association has dropped to this point.
Not angry, not even dissapointed, just a little bit sad. It’s not really all about the money, I can justify that to the Mrs (she knows how important this is to me as well!), it’s more about the sentiment and meaning that this represents.